Lights, camera, fiction

A new trend is emerging in Indian cinema. Our new directors are fascinated about making derived films on real or known stories. Take Raavan, No One Killed Jessica and Raajneeti for example. These films had fictionalized an entire set of events, but viewers already knew whom they were seeing on screen. They kept comparing or contrasting, and due to a lack of good performances could not do justice with the concept.

Original and new stories are always easy to portray as cinema. The director has the liberty to expand the vision of the original script. If the story is being filmed for the first time, then he has the definite advantage as he is setting the rules of the game. Even if he messes up with the story, only the screenwriter will be aware of it. Bringing known incidents on screen is comparatively difficult job. This is a problem typically faced by directors who make film on adapted screenplays. However, films made on adapted screenplays usually have a limited audience who have read the novel, and are left with the scope to compare. But drawing incidents from tales that are as popular and diverse as Ramayana or Mahabharata is indeed a challenge for directors.

Well, to avoid these issues, the directors can take a different route. Instead of keeping some names same and other fictional they can choose the fiction route completely. This way there would be confusion in the audience mind. Viewing would become a new experience. Our directors must know that film making, unlike documentary, does not have the responsibility to mirror the facts. Mixing fantasy and reality in heterogeneous proportions is one of the biggest crimes a director might commit in the process of cinematic creativity. The film has to be truthful to itself and nothing else.

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